Barly Baruti

Baruti Kandolo Lilela

(b. 9 December 1959, Zaïre)

Barly Baruti is an artist who has been fascinated by comics all his life. While working for the French cultural institutes in Zaïre he met Michel Pierre, literary director of publisher Casterman. Soon after, Baruti traveled to Europe. He made his first comics, 'Le Temps d'Agir,' 'Le Village des Ventrus' and 'Aube Nouvelle à Mobo,' in the early 1980s. In 1985 he started working for Segudo, a publisher that specialized in comics for the French regions of Africa.

As Baruti became more engaged with African comics, he founded le C.R.I.A. (Création recherche initiation à l'art, in Kinshasa), an association of young authors to create and promote Zaïrese comics. In the late 1990s Bary Baruti began two series with Frank Giroud, 'Éva K.' and 'Mandrill,' for which he replaced his semi-humorous clear line style with a more realistic one.